Govt to focus on reducing ‘cocolisap’ infestation in ‘hot spots’

The
government expects to reduce coconut scale insect infestation to moderate
levels in nine hot spot areas by April, an official of the Office of the
Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization
(OPAFSAM) said Wednesday.“We will
now focus in hot spot areas,” OPAFSAM Undersecretary Fredelita Guiza said in a
press conference in Quezon City.

There are
still some 625,000 trees that are severely infested by coconut scale insects –
popularly known as cocolisap – in the following municipalities: Balayan and
Calaca in Batangas, Bay and San Pablo in Laguna, Candelaria, Mauban, Sampaloc
and Polilio in Quezon, and Isabela in Basilan.

“Ito na
lang ang tututukan for the next several months… Ang target natin, hopefully,
April matatapos natin… from severe to moderate na,” she said.

In June
2014, there were 58 municipalities identified as hot spot areas that were
heavily infested by cocolisap. Guiza said the infestation was reduced to
moderate from severe levels, those low levels those areas that were moderately
infested. “Hindi na outbreak level, manageable level na,” she said.

Guiza
said the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) protocol is a science-based protocol
crafted “to reduce CSI population and prevent its spread.” It was launched in June
last year. The IPM protocol involves harvesting fruits from infested trees,
injecting trunks with systemic insecticide, spraying of organic insecticide,
releasing bio-control agents, and fertilization.

The
government successfully prevented cocolisap infestation from spreading to Bicol
and mainland Mindanao, Guiza noted. There were 23 quarantine checkpoints to
ensure the outbreak would not spread to Bicol and further down south. “Kung
walang quarantine checkpoints hindi na-contain ang pag-spread,” Guiza said. She noted
that Typhoon Glenda (Rammasun) which hit the country in July last year, helped
reduce the infestation. “The combined impact of IMP protocol and reduction of
pest population due to Glenda considerably brought down the pest population at
a level that bio-control can sustain,” Guiza said.

Philippine
Coconut Authority administrator Romulo Arancon Jr. said it will “essentially
take two years before severely infested threes are back in production.” The
government spent P177 million to treat 1,331,179 infested trees.

“After
the rapid ground assessment, a total of 1,186,242 CSI-infested trees were saved
at a cost of P149 per tree,” Guiza said. In June 2014, some 2.1 million coconut
trees, in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon and Basilan, were infested. By
August, the number rose to 2.7 million.

Through
Executive Order 169, President Benigno Aquino III ordered government agencies
to control the “massive infestation of scale insect.”